Roving frame builder mechanism



Jan. 27, 1959 c. w. HILL ETAL v 2,870,597

ROVING FRAME BUILDER MECHANISM! Filed May 9, 1957 United StatesPatent O ROVING FRAME BUILDER MECHANISM Clarence W. Hill, Biddeford, and David B. Hopkinson, Kennebunk, Maine, assignors to Saco-Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Maine Application May 9, 1957, Serial No; 658,037

. 3 Claims. (Cl. 57-96) This invention relates to textile roving frames and more particularly to a novel builder mechanism therefor.

In the conventional textile roving frame, a plurality of bobbins are mounted on a beam for reciprocating traversing movement relatively to a plurality of cooperating fiyers mounted on the frame of the machine for winding roving onto said bobbins to provide a conical ended package of roving of suitable stability so that it can thereafter be handled on spinning frames and the like. It has long been realized that a roving package with more steeply tapered conical ends than are conventional would be desirable so that a more nearly cylindrical package could be provided to increase the total volume or weight of roving for a given bobbin length and diameter. However, the steepness. of the taper has been limited by the necessity of providing a sufficiently stable roving package to withstand the essential cleaning during unwinding, wherein a blast of air is directed downwardly against the top of the yarn package so that loose fibers, etc., will be blown downwardly to prevent their settling onto the roving package and contaminating it.

According to the present invention, it has been discovered that, although the steepness of taper at the upper end of the package is limited by the aforementioned essential air cleaning, the taper at the bottom end of the package is not so limited and maybe made as steep as desired consistent with stability during handling, and, furthermore, that much steeper tapers than have heretofore been used may readily be tolerated in the necessary handling of roving packages. Thus, it is contemplated that a roving package of substantially greater volume than heretofore thought possible can be provided by the use of a taper on the bottom end of the package much steeper than that at the top, the former taper being the maximum 7 as limited by the air blast cleaning and the latter being the maximum that can be tolerated during handling; By so doing, a yarn package may be made to carry a volume or weight of roving increased by an amount as great as about percent, which enables a corresponding decrease in the necessary handling of a given amount 0 roving production.

This contemplated result, furthermore, has been accomplished by a simple modification of the conventional roving builder mechanism known as the American builder, wherein a member having screw threaded ends of opposite hand is rotated to move together the traverse controlling builder jaws of the mechanism, by substitut ing a member having screw threaded ends of differing thread lead as well, so that the end of said member carrying the lower taper controlling builder jaw has a lead much less than thatof the end carrying the upper taper controlling jaw. Hence, rotation of such member in the usual manner to move the jaws toward one another will provide a shorter movement of the lower taper controlling jaw than that of the upper taper controlling jaw to establish a steeper taper on the bottomvof the yarn package.

For the purpose of more fully explaining the invenice 2 tion, reference is now made to the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, together with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the mechanism of a conventional roving frame as modified in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of the roving frame of Fig. 1 showing the builder jaws and the member moving them according to the present invention; and

Fig. 3 is a view of a roving package such as would be provided by the structure of the prior art contrasted with such a package provided by the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 is shown a somewhat simplified diagrammatic view of the operating mechanism of a roving frame, such mechanism being in general well known in the art. Briefly, such mechanism includes a frame shown at 10 having a horizontally extending bobbin rail 12 mounted thereon for vertical reciprocating movement by any suitable means (not shown).. A plurality of bobbins, herein represented by a single bobbin 14 having roving R wound thereon, are

rotatably mounted on said rail for vertical reciprocatory movement therewith. The bobbin 14 has a central coaxial spindle 16 with a flyer 18 mounted thereon, the

position as the bobbin 14 is traversed axially thereof to wind the roving onto the bobbin.

For driving the above described mechanism, a main driving motor 20 or other suitable means is provided,

such motor driving 'at constant speed the, spindle 16- through its bevel gears 22 by a suitable chain, drive 24.

and spindle driving shaft 26. Since the bobbin 14 must not only be driven relatively to the flyer 18 at a speed which decreases as the roving is wound up on the bobbin. but also at a speed having a constant difference from the flyer speed, either slightly less or slightly greater, so that roving will be wound up on the bobbin, both a variable speed drive means and a differential drive means are through its shaft 51 by motor 20, the planetary pinions- 54 on their mounting sleeve 55 being driven from bottom cone shaft 42 by a suitable chain drive 56, and the surrounding internal gear 58 driving, through a suitable chain drive 57, bobbin drive shaft 59 which drives the bobbin 14 through suitable bevel gears 60 slidably mounted to permit traversing movement of the bobbin.

For providing the reciprocating traverse movement of beam 12, a reversing mechanism is arranged to drive the beam driving rack 61 from lower cone shaft 42, said shaft having mounted at its end a bevel pinion 62 selectlvely engaging one of the two reversing pinions 64 and 66, together shiftably mounted on shaft 65, and being a driven in one or the other direction of rotation depending upon which pinion is engaged with driving pinion 62. Shaft 65 drives, through bevel gears 68, the rack driving pinion 69. The shiftable pinions 64 and 66 are shifted by a shifter lever 70 actuated by a builder driving shaft 72 which is periodically rotated for .one half a revolution to shift from one reversing pinion to the other.

More specifically, the builder driving shaft 72, suitably mounted on frame 10 of the machine, is driven for half revolution operation by a bevel gear 74 mounted on the that, so. long as said shaft remains in one ofits two test positions, its driving bevel pinion 74 can rotate freely within a gap 77 without driving it. The initial movement of builder shaft 72 to engage the gear teeth of its gapped pinion 76' is provided by a spring loaded arm 78 which bears on one of a pair of oppositely disposed pins 79 mounted on builder shaft 72 outwardly thereof, the arm being loaded. duringthe following half revolution of the shaft 72 by. the opposite of said pins 79. The shifter lever 70 is pivoted at 71 and moved by an, eccentric 73 on builder shaft 72 rotatable within a hole in said lever to shift gears '64 and 66 upona' half revolution rotation ofsaid shaft.

"For controlling the above described. half revolution movement of builder shaft 72, a pair of oppositely dis-. posed dogs SQ are mounted on said shaft to cooperate with a pair of builder jaws 82 and 84 mounted on beam 12 for vertical reciprocating'movement therewith. Said I jaws are also mounted for movement toward and awayfrom one another by means of a screw member 86 having threads of opposite hand on the, ends thereof, the rotation of which moves the builder jaws 82 and 84 toward one another to control the extent of traverse of beam 12 relatively to frame 10 and hence establish the build of the yarn being wound on the bobbin, all as hereinafter more fully explained. The screw member 86 is provided with a spline 88 at its upper portion so that it may move vertically with beam 12, and yetbe driven by a non-traversing shaft 89 driven. through a pinion 90 engaged with rack 92, The rack 92, is mountedv on frame 10: for lateral sliding movement but not for traversing movement with beam 12 and is driven from shaft 72 by a worm 94 and gears 95. Said rack has at its end a belt retainer 96 for belt 38 for gradually changing the. speed of lower cone shaft 42 with respect to upper cone. shaft 34 as required.

The operation of the above described structure is apparent from the description of the mechanism and is generally well understood in the art. Hence it will be described but briefly herein with emphasis on the portions of such mechanism as affect the present invention. Thus, the main drive motor through the upper and lower cones 36 and 40 and differential drives the flyer 18 and bobbin 14, the latter being driven at a gradually decreasing speed by means of the shifting of belt 38 so that the necessary speeds and speed relationships of the fiyer 18 and bobbin 14 are maintained as the roving builds up on bobbin 14. The traversing movement of the bobbin 14 relative to. the flyer and the build of the bobbin including the conical taper at its ends (Fig. 3) is con.- trolled by the builder shaft, 72 which periodically rotates for half a turn to reverse the direction of travel of the beam 12 carrying the, bobbin; as well as to shift the belt 38 and to move. closer together the. builder jaws 82;, and 84, such rotation of builder; shaft 72 being itselfcon trolled by the movement of the builder jaws assembly relatively to the dogs 80.

Consider, as shown in Fig. 1, that the beam 12 is almost atits lowermost extent of travel with the upper dog 80 incontact with side of upper builder jaw 82. An additional downward movement of the builder jaw assembly with beam 12 permits the upper dog 80. to clear said upperjaw, whereupon spring pressed arm 73 initiates the rotation of shaft 72 by pressing on pin 79 to engage the teeth of gap gear 76. with driving pinion 74 and so rotate builder shaft 72 until the other dog 8% comes into contactwiththe upper extension of lower jaw 84. The rotation of said builder shaft simultaneously shifts gears 64 and66 tobegin to traverse the beam 12 in the opposite direction, as ,well as shifting belt 38 and moving the upper and lower builder, jaws 82 and 84v closer together;

to decrease the traverse slightly to establish the conical taper on the ends ofthe'bobbin.

When the upward movement ofthe beam 12 has continued far enough so that lower dog clears the lower builder jaw 84, the process is repeated and so on until the bobbinis full. Thus, it is the movement toward one another of the builder jawswhich establishes the taper at the top and bottom of the wound'bobbin, and, as shown at the right hand side of Fig. 3, such taper with heretofore known roving frames has always been uniform because of the employment of a screw member 86-having upper and lower threaded portions of uniform lead.

Accordingto the present invention, and as best shown in Fig. 2, the screw member 86 is provided with upper and lower threadedpor-tions wherein the lead of the thread of the upper threaded portion 87 is generally conventional, but the lead of the thread of the lower threaded Por n s m s ha i cQ t .n i na ,v aswe l s n m c ess. han. hat-6 he. upp hr d P tion Thus, as the lead "screw member; of; the invention is rotated, tomovethe upper and. lower builder jaws- 82. and 8.4,, toward one another to establish the build of the rov: ing' on the bobbin, the total movement of the upper jaw 82, along its screw threaded; portion 87 will result in a jaw displacement to a position. indicated as'82a, whereas.

the, total movement of the lower'jaw 84.. along its screw threaded portion 85. will result in a much smaller jawdisplacement to a position indicated as 84a. Since the di lacement of the jaws, 82 and. s ddetermines, through;v dogsSll, the traverseof bobbin 14 relatively to flyer 18, a decreased travel; of the lower jaw 84 relatively to that. of the upper jaw 82-. will result in building up a much .greater volumeof roving at. the bottom corner of the:-

wound; obbin, as indicated. by the shaded cross sectional. area at V on; the right hand side of Fig. 3,. suchv bemgof the order; of; as; much as 5. percent increase In some 111.-

stances as contrasted withthe prior art build as shown on the left hand side ofFigB.

Thus, it will be seenv that the invention provides an improved roving frame, builder mechanism capable of winding onto a bobbin substantially greater volume of roving than has heretofore. been considered possible.

Various. modifications of the invention, within the spirit thereof and the scope of; the appended claims will; bev apparent tothose skilled in. this; art,

I claim: v a f t I. In a textile roving frame having a bobbin and aflyer mounted for relatively traversing movement for winding roving onto. said; bobbin to provide a; cylindrical roving package with tapered end portions, a builder mechanism. for relatively traversing said bobbin andflyerincluding an upper taper controlling and lower taper controlling builder j-avvv for controlling the distance of.

travel of said traversing movement and means movable with one of said bobbin and said flyer for'prog'ressively moving said jaws toward one another progressively to decrease. said traversing movement, and providing alesser movement of said lower taper controlling jaw than of said upper taper controlling jaw to wind roving d'elivered' from said flyerinto a cylindrioal roving package having a steeper taper on said lower end' portion than on said upper end portion.

2. In a textile roving fname swarmed in cl-aim I wherein said' means for progressively moving said jaws? toward one another includes a' member having screw. threaded end portions of opposite handeaoh cooperating with one of said builder jaws to move said jaws toward,v

one another upon rotation of said member, the screwthreadjed end portion. cooperating with said lower taper f for winding roving onto said bobbin to provide a cylindrioal package having tapered end portions, a builder mechanism for traversing and reciprocating said bobbin including an upper taper controlling builder jaw and a lower taper controlling builder jaw, a member movable with said bobbin for progressively moving said jaws toward one another progressively to decrease said traversing movement, said member having screw threaded end portions of opposite hand each carrying one of said builder jaws to move said jaws toward one another upon rotation of said member, the screw threaded end portion carrying said lower taper controlling jaw having a and rotating said member to wind roving. delivered from said flyer into a cylindrical roving package having 'a steeper taper on said lower end portion than on said upper end portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Canning Oct. 25, 1892 Hendrickson .a June 4, 1935 

